The project is being developed as part of the British Academy-funded Commodities of Empire project in the Faculty of Arts which is a collaboration between Dr Sandip Hazareesingh and Dr Jonathan Curry-Machado and Professor Jean Stubbs from the University of London's Institute for the Study of the Americas. Commodity Histories is also part of the OU Digital Humanities research programme and the development and use of the website will contribute significantly to its key objective of exploring how the use of digital technologies is transforming the research process.